14KT

Known most for his sample-chopping abilities but also adept with drum programming and keyboard work, Ypsilanti, Michigan native Kendall Tucker came up with Athletic Mic League, a rap collective based in neighboring Ann Arbor. Tucker issued the first of several solo projects in the late 2000s with the instrumental set The Golden Hour (2008), after which he continued to progress while synthesizing a range of inspirations from the dirtiest funk to the coldest post-punk. Tucker’s additional full-lengths include Nowalataz (2009), the Mello Music Group recordings A Friendly Game of KT (2012) and Nickel & Dimed (2013), the self-issued Elelator (2015), and the Street Corner Music set 14KillaTape: Redux (also 2015). Tucker’s outside production work spans dozens of tracks by the likes of Invincible, One Be Lo, Danny Brown, the Black Opera, I, Ced, and Elzhi. He has also recorded radically different albums with fellow AML alum Mayer Hawthorne (The Big Knock, as Jaded Incorporated) and Aaron "AB" Abernathy (Saturn Return). ~ Andy Kellman